StayUncle Is Here To Help Young, Unmarried Couples In India ‘Get A Room’

In August 2015, 40 couples from hotels at Madh Island and Aksa beach were caught and charged with public indecency by Mumbai police. A few months later, Sri Rama Sena barged into a pub in Mangalore and beat up  a group of men and women; Muslim vigilante groups threatened women to cover their faces, and these are just a few instances of the intolerance of traditional Indian society towards any expression of love and affection between unmarried people, especially in public places. It’s not an unknown fact - we’ve heard and read plenty of horror stories about physical attacks on young couples by the self-proclaimed ‘moral police’ that claim to be maintaining decency and traditions by altering the ‘corrupt’ younger generation ‘inappropriate’ behaviour.

Unmarried Indian couples have struggled to find a safe space  to openly express their love for a long time now, away from the accusations and threats of the ‘protectors of Indian culture.’ Most couples are left with no option other than renting a hotel room, and New Delhi-based entrepreneur Sanchit Sethi recognised the unfortunate situation most unmarried couples face, more so when living on a budget, and thus, StayUncle was born. StayUncle helps users find affordable rooms which they can rent without the fear of physical assault and judgement.

“There is no law in India that prohibits (unmarried) couples from renting a room,” said Sethi, founder of the year-old startup, speaking to Quartz. “As long as you have a government identity card, you should be given a room. We don’t live in the 1950s anymore. What we are trying to do is change the mindset of hoteliers.”

The initial business plan, as reported by Quartz, was to provide traveller’s hotel rooms for a short period of time. But since the company’s launch in April 2015, they got a flood of enquiries regarding accommodation for unmarried couples, and that’s when StayUncle decided to take a new route in their business strategy. “What was surprising was that 99% of the enquiries we were receiving were from unmarried couples looking for rooms,” said Sethi. “We started fresh all over again. This time, with the focus on unmarried couples,” he added.

StayUncle helps users find hotel rooms for durations as short as eight to ten hours. Ace Residency, a budget hotel in Greater Kailash, New Delhi, was the first hotel that partnered with StayUncle, and since then thirty-four hotels in New Delhi and ten in Mumbai have signed up with the company, including top-tier hotels such as the Trident and the Oberoi, according to Sethi. “Out of 10 hotels we speak to, only two or three eventually sign up,” he said. “This is a new industry and people often see this as going against the culture of the country and there is always the fear of moral policing.”

A young company with great intentions, StayUncle has a long way to go and several hurdles to overcome, such as ensuring the safety of their clients as well as privacy. The charges for hotel rooms of course vary from place to place, but StayUncle tries to provide the best possible offer that they can without compromising; as reported by Quartz, an eight-hour stay at hotels listed on StayUncle costs anywhere between Rs. 1,400 ($21) and Rs5,000 ($75), with the average rate being around Rs 2,000 ($30) for an eight-hour stay. In the past three months alone, StayUncle has reportedly accommodated close to 200 couples successfully, and considering how rampant and widespread moral policing is in India, the number is only likely to rise.

Click here to read the complete article by Quartz.